Cubetto Universe

Yes, I would have invested in both the original Cubetto, the programming wooden toy robot cube presented in the first venture pitch, and now in the expanding Cubetto universe called the Cubetto Super Series presented in the second pitch. This Super Series consists of extension sets of maps, storybooks, collectible play cards and more ideas on how to play with Cubetto. This is a Kickstarter Gold project, created by Primo Toys. The context of the second 2.02 minute venture pitch can be found on their Kickstarter Campaign Site. After launching at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2016, Cubetto is now travelling in the museum’s world tour, The Future Starts Here alongside groundbreaking technologies by Apple and Google. It is an exhibition that questions how our world would change if new tech ideas became part of our everyday lives. Primo Toys claim that they are shaping the future of educational technology with Cubetto. Such a context alone is enticing enough for an investor-grandparent-teacher like me. Now, on to the venture pitch presented by the founder-inventor Filippo Yacob. This pitch feels like it is a story enthusiastically told to a group of parents having tea together in a sitting room. It has both substance and style as found in the structure of the script and in the warm fuzzy child-oriented visuals which would melt the audience’s hearts - those of parents. These parents are among the potential investors; they are also their future customers, since, according to Primo Toy's Kickstarter page, investors will be gifted with Cubetto accessories or full playsets as rewards for pledges from as low as $10 to $350. This company was also quick to tap into the educational market through getting Montessori approval for its toy. Hence, academy pledges up to $3500 will receive the complete education package of 10 lots of the Maps Special bundle, an online training session and a membership to weekly lesson plan updates and unreleased resources. Using the 5 Ts taught by Adam Lorant, The Art of the Pitch, I will now dissect the script and label the parts of the script according to the different 5 Ts: Trouble, Technology, Team, Traction and Treasure. It starts with the story-like “Once upon a time..." voiced by the founder and inventor of Cubetto, Filippo Yacob. 'Back in 2016, you helped us launch Cubetto, a LOGO Turtle-inspired, Montessori-influenced coding toy for girls and boys ages 3 and up that helps them learn programming without screens'. Catchy Concept Pitch - Here is where the catchy concept pitch is used: 'learn programming without screens'. This catch phrase is fundamental to the true value of the product because parents and teachers want young children to learn coding but are anathema to their spending inordinate amounts of time on the screen while doing so. 'We've been on a journey ever since and boy, what a journey it's been. We've introduced 1 million children in over 100 countries to coding irrespective of gender or language'. Traction - The company's track record with this product since 2016 is casually but clearly stated here. We remember that it is only 2018 now and over 1 million children have already used this product. 'Cubetto is a friendly little robot who loves to go on epic adventures. His board is a control panel and his blocks are a real programming language that you can touch. Children use the blocks to write programmes that help Cubetto find his way home, exploring loops and algorithms along the way'. Technology - Here, the founder Filippo Yacob explains succinctly how the robot toy can be used to teach children how to programme. The audience is convinced that this technology works as we watch the children play with the Cubetto successfully and exactly as described by the inventor. This is also clearly a differentiated product as many other robotic toys need screens or written language for coding and are also too complicated for very young children to handle. As seen in the video, the physical sizes of the wooden Cubetto and the wooden coding blocks fit nicely when held between two little hands and when gripped between two chubby fingers, respectively. 'Last year, you helped us make Cubetto's world bigger with new places to explore and new lessons to learn. Thanks to Kickstarter Gold, today millions of children are coding their way across ice and swamp, time and space, card and even canvas'. Team - The big experience from the last two years was made possible because of the team support from the investors and from the company staff, which the investors helped to fund. 'Now we're back to introduce a brand new one of a kind adventure for Cubetto and your little ones to explore. With a super limited edition series of collectible packs, we're here to take you to the African Savannah. The African Savannah pack will take your children on a wild safari ride across sun-baked plains and rolling grasslands with animals and friends. It comes with a map, a beautifully-illustrated story book, a collectible set of playcards for coding activities, navigation tasks and games'. Trouble - Making game extensions should not ordinarily cause big monetary trouble to the company, compared with the much higher cost of making the original game product. However, the company still needs funds to pay their future developers and to acquire the materials for new extensions. It is worth noting that the Trouble is stated in an aesthetic way, with emotive words like 'will take your children on a wild safari ride across sun-baked plains' and 'rolling grasslands with animals and friends'. 'This is the first of a super limited edition, one of a kind Cubetto Playsets. Only available on Kickstarter and never again repeated. We call this the Cubetto Super Series. We believe that story-telling, adventure and exploration go hand-in-hand with teaching young children how to code. You’ve already helped us broaden Cubetto’s horizon before and we hope you will journey with us once again'. Treasure - no sums of money are mentioned here in the ASK section of the pitch, but again, a subtle approach is taken. The founder mentions that the investor-parent-customer has already 'helped us broaden Cubetto's horizon before'. Conversely, it is implied that Cubetto has in turn also broadened the children's horizons. Therefore, the founder is saying that if the investor-parent is still convinced of the concept of story-embedded coding and believes in the fundamental value of coding without a screen for children, they should put their money where their mouth is and 'journey with [them] once again.' The actual amount of money needed is not mentioned in the pitch because it would have looked crass coming at the end of a video that was replete with images of childhood innocence and exuberant play. Instead, the monetary details are to be found in the Rewards page of the site. Backers can choose to pledge respective amounts for the original Cubetto Playset ($225) or Cubetto Maps Special ($350), or a unique set of Play Cards ($10), or the new, exclusive to Kickstarter, African Savannah Adventure Pack ($29). Education bundles are also available for pledges starting at $1,400. This appears to be a trustworthy company as they have shipped their products to 55 countries. Their global goals can be seen in their having digital versions of their storybooks in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and traditional Chinese. Most backers come from 10 world cities like Singapore, London, New York and Sydney. Primo Toys certainly understand the Early Childhood Education Industry well and what their consumers, the parents and teachers want their children to have as educational toys. A separate very convincing video showing what parents think about Cubetto is also available on the Kickstarter site. This is what parents say as they watch their children play with the toy: 'It teaches the basic building blocks of coding and engineering without having a child glued to a screen'. 'It's good to teach programming from a very young age because IT is everywhere today'. 'The thing I love most about it is that it encourages children to learn just through playing and exploring. It supports failure as a process of learning'. 'It feels like you're building a little world of adventure and the coding is not what you're thinking about. It's all about play'. The original battery-operated wooden Cubetto toy had 3,373 backers who pledged $781,823 in 2016, exceeding the $100,000 goal. Now, the campaign that just ended in April 2018 was to raise funds for the extension packs, the latest being the African Savannah Pack. 1,293 backers have pledged $220,382 for this Adventure pack and it has exceeded the goal of $50,000. This success is probably due to its superbly created venture pitches, and the gifting of rewards in the form of Cubetto playsets and accessories. No doubt, the past success of the last two years of sales of the original playset and earlier adventure extensions have made this a Kickstarter Gold project. This is certainly a well-pitched and well-received project that I plan to invest in.